Gathering Revives Cologne’s Legendary Café Central

GATHERING gallery proudly announces the grand reopening of the legendary Central in Cologne — a vibrant café, bar, and cultural hotspot that once stood at the heart of the city’s avant-garde and intellectual scene in the 1980s. Nestled at the center of the bohemian quarter, this iconic venue — where artists, writers, musicians, and provocateurs once mingled — is set for a renaissance in April 2025, right alongside the new GATHERING Cologne location just down the street. Revitalized with a bold new vision, Central will see the reinstallation of the iconic Kippenberger Mirrors, alongside caricatures of guests painted for the café’s fifth anniversary in 1991. These will be paired with new dynamic, site-specific interventions by contemporary artists, such as Stefan Brüggemann and Tai Shani. With a transformed interior, new cuisine concept, and the debut of the stylish new Peters Bar, this storied space is ready to reclaim its cultural legacy.

Central was more than a café — it was an intellectual arena, a vibrant laboratory of artistic experimentation and exchange that shaped Cologne’s cultural landscape. Martin Kippenberger, Jörg Immendorff, Günter Förg, Udo Kier, among many other artists made it the go-to space for radical creativity. Simultaneously, lectures by Peter Sloterdijk, Stefan Heym, and Johan Galtung extended its influence beyond its walls. Kippenberger, closely tied to owner Dr. Werner Peters, made the above Hotel Chelsea his home and left a lasting imprint on Central. His creative touch was everywhere—from the installation of his famous mirrors to reimagining rooms at the hotel and adding his distinctive brushstrokes, turning the café itself into an integral part of his artistic practice.

For decades, Cologne was a magnet for artistic innovation — a European crossroads where German artists like Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter converged with a wave of American and international artists, from Nam June Paik and John Cage to Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, and Robert Gober. The city’s freewheeling energy made it an essential stop on the global art circuit, with Central at its beating heart—a gathering place for radical thinkers, musicians, and the avant-garde. Today with new galleries opening in the neighborhood, Cologne is undergoing a cultural renaissance. The return of Central honors its legacy while contributing to the city’s creative resurgence.

Central will blend echoes of its rich past with a bold, contemporary vision. A standout feature is the bar, which serves as a striking visual centerpiece, featuring a site-specific installation in modernized aluminum by Mexican artist Stefan Brüggemann. Anchoring the space, the bar visually and conceptually bridges the gap between history and innovation. Set in the corner of the café is the doorway to Peters Bar — named in honor of Dr. Werner Peters, the beloved cultural impresario behind Central’s glory days — providing a more intimate ambiance. Wrapped in deep red hues and softly illuminated, the velvet textures and warm lighting of Peters Bar evoke a sense of intrigue and nostalgia. At its heart, a bespoke carpet designed by Turner Prize-winning British artist Tai Shani adds depth and character, upholding the motif of contemporary art which lies at the heart of Central. Honoring the history of the café, Kippenberger’s iconic mirrors drawn at the café’s fifth anniversary will be reinstalled in the space for the first time in ten years.

The new restaurant menu is shaped by German and Northern European cuisine with a Mediterranean influence, recalling another dining destination in GATHERING’s portfolio, Mira in Ibiza. Sigfredo Scuticchio, leading both Mira and Central, describes the latter as a “restaurant marrying traditional and modern approaches, influenced by the history of the place itself.”

Alex Flick, founder of GATHERING and newly responsible for Central explains: “After meeting Werner Peters, the owner of Hotel Chelsea and Central, I was deeply moved to walk the same halls as many of my artistic heroes. Our expansion here is about tapping into that legacy and contributing to its next chapter. The energy is here, the history is undeniable, and the appetite for something new is palpable. With Central and our new gallery space, we want to be part of Cologne’s cultural revival, creating a place where art, ideas, and community come together in a way that feels both forward-looking and deeply rooted in the city’s artistic heritage.”

Coinciding with the reopening of Central, GATHERING inaugurates its third and new gallery location in Cologne with a solo exhibition of the late German artist Sibylle Ruppert (1924–2011) on view until May 17, 2025. Her work has not been shown in Cologne since 1971.